In the realm of computer graphics, three-dimensional (3D) scene rendering is the 3D computer graphics process of automatically converting 3D wire frame models into two-dimensional (2D) images (i.e., frames or screen-space) with 3D photorealistic effects or non-photorealistic rendering on a computer or video-game system.
Rendering for Interactive media (e.g., games and simulations) is calculated and displayed in real time, at rates of approximately 20 to 120 frames per second. In real-time rendering, the goal is to show as much information as possible as the eye can process in a fraction of a second. For example, with 30 frame-per-second, a frame is just one 30th of a second.
Typically, a real-time computer graphics system seeks to achieve as high as possible degree of photorealism at an acceptable minimum rendering speed. Real-time rendering is often polygonal (e.g., triangles) and aided by the computer's GPU.
Unfortunately, 3D scene rendering is computationally intensive. It seems that the industry's state-of-the-art graphics hardware (e.g., graphics processing unit (GPU)) struggles to keep up with the expectations of realism and the demands of the graphics programmer. That hottest new video games push the envelope on the capability of the hardware to successfully render successive 3D scenes in real-time and at a frame rate (i.e., pictures per second) that users/viewers expect.
The Detailed Description references the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The same numbers are used throughout the drawings to reference like features and components.